The present invention relates to a thin-film electroluminescence (EL) matrix display panel, which includes an EL thin layer sandwiched between a pair of dielectric layers and, more particularly, a novel construction of the EL matrix display panel.
Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 films have been formed on an electroluminescence layer made of a ZnS thin-film doped with manganese for functioning dielectric layers of the thin-film EL matrix display panel to thereby stabilize the dielectric properties thereof. The Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 films are composed by conventional sputtering techniques. However, there are defects in providing the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 film that the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 film has unavoidably little adhesion force to the ZnS thin-film and, random surface levels are inevitably produced because of a small inconsistency of the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 film surface conditions. It has been postulated as reasons thereof by the present inventors that the little adhesion results from providing the adhesion thereof in accordance with van der Waals' force to heterofilms and detaching the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 film from the ZnS thin-film by means of pin holes or impurities erroneously disposed on the interface thereof. The random surface levels result in making the electroluminescence initiating voltage non-controllable to thereby produce nonuniform electroluminescence. To eliminate the above defects, it has been required that the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 films are provided under very clean conditions for the fabrication thereof. However, such clean conditions necessitate expensive manufacturing apparatus. Planar diode sputtering techniques are usefully available for forming the Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 films because the planar diode sputtering techniques enhance the clean conditions of the substrate surfaces and permit the generation of films by means of secondary emission from the target thereof.
Recently, planar magnetron sputtering techniques have been utilized for the planar diode sputtering techniques. Unfortunately, in the planar magnetron sputtering techniques a small amount of secondary emission is obtained so that enhancement of the clean conditions in terms of the secondary emission is not expected. In other words, the planar magnetron sputtering techniques are not suitable for fabricating wide thin-film EL matrix display panels since films formed by the planar magnetron sputtering techniques are inferior in adhesion properties and uniformity thereof.